HISTSCI 1350: Modern Life Science: From Pasteur to CRISPR | Department of the History of Science

Semester: Spring

Year offered: 2026

Link: Course Website

What do we mean when we speak of the “the modern life sciences”? In this course, we examine this question following Darwin’s revolutionary theories of evolution. We cover a range of topics spanning the late 19th to the early 21st centuries, including the emergence of the scientific laboratory; the development of disciplines such as bacteriology, virology, genetics, and molecular biology; and the promissory horizons of emergent bio(medico)technologies. In a time where scientific actions are both a source of rapid innovation and social suspicion, this course emphasizes how the life sciences and society profoundly shape one another.

Wednesdays at 3:00-5:45 PM with Professor Rijul Kochhar

Rijul Kochhar

hsdept@fas.harvard.edu

Assistant Professor of the History of Science

Areas of Research: Transnational Histories of the Life Sciences and Infectious Diseases; Comparative Therapeutics; Environmental Anthropology; Critical Theories of Disability and Rationality. Rijul Kochhar is a historian of science and an anthropologist...